LONDON — HSBC is fighting back against reports that its chief executive has threatened to quit if he is not made chairman.

“It is nonsense that the Group CEO threatened to resign unless he was appointed Chairman,” the bank said in an emailed statement.

A report in the Financial Times said Wednesday that Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan had threatened to leave the bank after its board signalled that he wouldn’t replace outgoing Stephen Green as chairman. “The suggestion is offensive to Mike and to the company,” the bank added.

It is possible that the FT’s story comes from a third party who did not want Geoghegan to take the chairmanship role. Evening Standard columnist Anthony Hilton points out that while Geoghegan is known for being aggressive and having a “monstrous ego” he probably didn’t get to his role by doing things like threatening the board. Now, however, the very suggestion he might have done so “makes it very difficult for the board to appoint him.”

A spokesman for HSBC ( HBC – news – people ) did not wish to comment on the possibility.

However the FT reported on Thursday that HSBC’s finance director, Douglas Fint, was now shaping up as the likely candidate to become chairman, and cited three people close to the bank’s board.

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In recent days two other contenders had been widely reported as the frontrunners for the role: Simon Robertson, a senior independent director at HSBC and chairman of Rolls-Royce ( RYCEY.PK – news – people ), and John Thornton, a former president of Goldman Sachs ( GS – news – people ) and nonexecutive chairman of HSBC North America.

Shares of HSBC were down by 1% at 657 pence on Thursday in London.

Under British corporate governance guidelines a company’s chief executive should not automatically move up to the role of chairman – but it has been done. Marks & Spencer ( MASPY.PK – news – people ) chief executive Stuart Rose famously provoked criticism when he moved into the chairman’s seat in March 2008.

HSBC’s tradition also goes against those guidelines, and its chief executive has gone on to become chairman since the 1970s with a line of executives seeing Michael Sandberg, Willie Purves, John Bond and Stephen Green.

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